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solarbird"We must reform" is now being pitched by police chiefs in some places. KEEP PUSHING. PUSH HARDER.
----- 1 -----
We must reform our police. Here’s how
We need more intentional policing, better discipline, a state investigatory agency and training that acknowledges the nuance of these times.
by Tim Burgess & Bernard Melekian
June 23, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/06/we-must-reform-our-police-heres-how
It took less than nine minutes. That’s how long Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd, killing the 46-year-old man on a Minneapolis street on May 25, and that is how long it took to erase whatever public trust and confidence had been gained in American policing over the past decade of attempted reforms.
It was a callous killing committed in the light of day, documented on video for all to witness.
Both of us have experience with policing, one as a patrol officer and detective and as an elected official in Seattle, the other as a California police chief and public safety adviser to three Seattle mayors. Both of us have worked for decades to address the centuries-old problem of oppressive policing.
What happened in Minneapolis has reinforced our belief that true reform is possible only with a fundamental transformation of police services.
What’s needed in American policing is a recognition that police officers are often called upon to handle “social order” events — people experiencing mental health crises, garbage and litter complaints, neighbor disputes, to name a few — which often do not involve criminal behavior. Requests for police services in Seattle number well over 700,000 a year; in many of these cases, police officers are not the most prepared or capable resource to deploy.
We advocate a new approach to policing that holds offenders and officers accountable and is responsive to the people of our city, a new approach designed to fundamentally change policing for the better. Here’s how.
----- 2 -----
WA students don’t need cops. They need counselors, teachers and nurses
By now school districts should know: Police presence in schools has negative consequences for marginalized students.
by Lin Trinh
June 22, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/06/wa-students-dont-need-cops-they-need-counselors-teachers-and-nurses
Nearly half of all public schools in the United States (48%) have an armed police officer, often referred to as a school resource officer (SRO). From 1999 to 2015, the percentage of students with an SRO in their school increased from 54% to 70%. At the same time, the number of school counselors grew only by 5%, after adjusting for growth in student enrollment. Children of color and children from low-income communities are more likely to have SROs in their schools.
Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, the popularity of SRO programs has steadily increased. Millions of dollars in federal, state and local grant funding have been invested in these programs in the name of keeping students safe and preventing school shootings. But it has not worked. There is no evidence to show that SROs make schools any safer or that they have been effective at stopping or deterring school shootings.
However, there is strong evidence of the negative unintended consequences for students, especially students from marginalized backgrounds. The presence of police officers in schools leads to overcriminalization of normal adolescent misbehavior that can and should be dealt with safely by a school’s administration. Black students and students with disabilities are about three times more likely than white students and students without disabilities, respectively, to be arrested in school. More than 70% of youth in contact with the juvenile justice system are struggling with mental health or behavioral disorders. Police presence in a school can create a culture of fear and undermine a healthy learning environment. No amount of training can erase the traumatizing presence that police can represent for many vulnerable communities.
According to a 2017 American Civil Liberties Union report, of Washington’s 100 largest school districts, 84 had police officers assigned to schools, the majority of which did not require specialized training or data collection related to police activity. We know that despite the federal requirement, many Washington school districts are not accurately reporting data on school arrests to the U.S. Department of Education. Though they are required to report police referral data in state report cards, Washington districts include only school discipline through suspensions and expulsions.
----- 3 -----
Video in civil claim shows RCMP officer dragging student, stepping on her head after wellness check
Officer has been placed on administrative duties and RCMP has launched code of conduct investigation
Brady Strachan · CBC News · Posted: Jun 23, 2020
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kelowna-rcmp-surveillance-video-wellness-check-lawsuit-1.5623215
A surveillance video that is part of a civil lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court shows an RCMP officer in Kelowna dragging a female nursing student down a hallway and stepping on her head after a wellness check at her apartment.
The suit alleging physical and emotional abuse was filed by Mona Wang, a student at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in Kelowna, against RCMP Cpl. Lacy Browning on March 23.
The officer disputes the claim, saying that only necessary force was used to subdue the student when she became violent. In Browning's statement of defence, filed June 15, she alleges Wang had a box cutter in her hand and denies that she assaulted the student.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Browning has been placed on administrative duties and the RCMP has launched a code of conduct investigation as well as a criminal investigation, according to a police spokesperson.
In the notice of claim, Wang says she was experiencing mental distress on the evening of Jan. 20, 2020, and her boyfriend called the RCMP requesting a wellness check.
The lawsuit says Browning found Wang lying on her apartment's bathroom floor and did not provide medical assistance.
----- 4 -----
Above the Law: The Data Are In on Police, Killing, and Race
June 23, 2020
By Lyman Stone
Police killing is not the work of vigilant warriors defending society at great personal cost, and sometimes going too far. It is the day-in, day-out petty tyranny of a taxpayer-funded bureaucratic lobby group. The difference is that, unlike other public sector unions, police unions have military-grade equipment they can use to violently crush protests against their abuses, and they are legally immune from most consequences. They’re teachers’ unions, but with tanks and endless get-out-of-jail-free cards.
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65309/
Police officers kill about 1,700 Americans every year. In other words, police killings have made up about one out of every twelve violent deaths of Americans between 2010 and 2018. That’s including American military deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere during that window. Indeed, more Americans died at the hands of police officers during that period (about 14,400) than died while on active military duty (about 9,400).
Police violence in America is extraordinary in its intensity. It is disproportionate to the actual threats facing police officers, and it has risen significantly in recent years without apparent justification. Its effects are felt across all racial groups, with non-Hispanic whites making up half of all people killed by police officers, even as African Americans are killed at disproportionately high rates compared to any reasonable baseline.
----- 5 -----
Did a Barista Put a Tampon in a Cop's Frappuccino? An Investigation
"LAPD one looks like it was sitting in a coffee cup for a week on someone's dashboard."
by Jason Koebler and Tim Marchman
Jun 23 2020, 10:59am
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ep4vek/did-a-barista-put-a-tampon-in-a-cops-frappuccino-an-investigation
Update: This story has been updated with comment from Target, which said it has "reviewed video footage and have not found any suspicious behavior."
Last night, America was seized with horror when Bill Melugin, a reporter for the local Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, tweeted an image of a tampon being pulled from a cup with the tip of a distinctive green straw.
An off-duty LAPD officer, according to Melugin, found the tampon in a blended coffee drink he'd purchased at a Starbucks inside a Target in Diamond Bar, and later filed a report with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
"This disgusting assault on a police officer was carried out by someone with hatred in their heart and who lacks human decency," the LAPD's union told Melugin.
The story, though, raised questions, and not just because of the long history of cops claiming to have been assaulted by fast-food workers, only for those claims to turn out to be nonsense. According to Melugin's reporting, the officer could only have been identified by their police credit union debit card. As anyone who's been in a Starbucks since the coronavirus pandemic began knows, though, cashiers don't handle debit cards. As the story goes, then, the cashier would have had to closely scrutinize the officer's card as they ran it through the machine and alert a barista to their identity; the barista, making the drink in plain sight, would have then have had to acquire a tampon and put it into the drink after it had been through a blender.
----- 6 -----
Joshua Potash
twitter.com/JoshuaPotash
23 June 2020
https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1275527496230895617
How is this no longer getting national attention? Have we already gone numb?
This was the scene outside City Hall in Richmond, Virginia last night. Police are still rioting across the country.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Police attacking protesters at close range with gas, rubber bullets]
[QUOTED TWEET]
Not the Real Levar Stoney
twitter.com/NotLevar
23 June 2020
https://twitter.com/NotLevar/status/1275368795444588544
[THREAD]
Timeline of Richmond City Hall attack, 1:27-1:30 AM June 23, 2020 from peaceful to apocalyptic nightmare. Here they start coming at the peaceful protesters.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT PREVIOUS LINK]
- We must reform our police. Here’s how
- WA students don’t need cops. They need counselors, teachers and nurses
- Video in civil claim shows RCMP officer dragging student, stepping on her head after wellness check
- Above the Law: The Data Are In on Police, Killing, and Race
- Did a Barista Put a Tampon in a Cop's Frappuccino? An Investigation
- Police attack protesters outside City Hall in Richmond, Virginia
----- 1 -----
We must reform our police. Here’s how
We need more intentional policing, better discipline, a state investigatory agency and training that acknowledges the nuance of these times.
by Tim Burgess & Bernard Melekian
June 23, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/06/we-must-reform-our-police-heres-how
It took less than nine minutes. That’s how long Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd, killing the 46-year-old man on a Minneapolis street on May 25, and that is how long it took to erase whatever public trust and confidence had been gained in American policing over the past decade of attempted reforms.
It was a callous killing committed in the light of day, documented on video for all to witness.
Both of us have experience with policing, one as a patrol officer and detective and as an elected official in Seattle, the other as a California police chief and public safety adviser to three Seattle mayors. Both of us have worked for decades to address the centuries-old problem of oppressive policing.
What happened in Minneapolis has reinforced our belief that true reform is possible only with a fundamental transformation of police services.
What’s needed in American policing is a recognition that police officers are often called upon to handle “social order” events — people experiencing mental health crises, garbage and litter complaints, neighbor disputes, to name a few — which often do not involve criminal behavior. Requests for police services in Seattle number well over 700,000 a year; in many of these cases, police officers are not the most prepared or capable resource to deploy.
We advocate a new approach to policing that holds offenders and officers accountable and is responsive to the people of our city, a new approach designed to fundamentally change policing for the better. Here’s how.
----- 2 -----
WA students don’t need cops. They need counselors, teachers and nurses
By now school districts should know: Police presence in schools has negative consequences for marginalized students.
by Lin Trinh
June 22, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/06/wa-students-dont-need-cops-they-need-counselors-teachers-and-nurses
Nearly half of all public schools in the United States (48%) have an armed police officer, often referred to as a school resource officer (SRO). From 1999 to 2015, the percentage of students with an SRO in their school increased from 54% to 70%. At the same time, the number of school counselors grew only by 5%, after adjusting for growth in student enrollment. Children of color and children from low-income communities are more likely to have SROs in their schools.
Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, the popularity of SRO programs has steadily increased. Millions of dollars in federal, state and local grant funding have been invested in these programs in the name of keeping students safe and preventing school shootings. But it has not worked. There is no evidence to show that SROs make schools any safer or that they have been effective at stopping or deterring school shootings.
However, there is strong evidence of the negative unintended consequences for students, especially students from marginalized backgrounds. The presence of police officers in schools leads to overcriminalization of normal adolescent misbehavior that can and should be dealt with safely by a school’s administration. Black students and students with disabilities are about three times more likely than white students and students without disabilities, respectively, to be arrested in school. More than 70% of youth in contact with the juvenile justice system are struggling with mental health or behavioral disorders. Police presence in a school can create a culture of fear and undermine a healthy learning environment. No amount of training can erase the traumatizing presence that police can represent for many vulnerable communities.
According to a 2017 American Civil Liberties Union report, of Washington’s 100 largest school districts, 84 had police officers assigned to schools, the majority of which did not require specialized training or data collection related to police activity. We know that despite the federal requirement, many Washington school districts are not accurately reporting data on school arrests to the U.S. Department of Education. Though they are required to report police referral data in state report cards, Washington districts include only school discipline through suspensions and expulsions.
----- 3 -----
Video in civil claim shows RCMP officer dragging student, stepping on her head after wellness check
Officer has been placed on administrative duties and RCMP has launched code of conduct investigation
Brady Strachan · CBC News · Posted: Jun 23, 2020
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kelowna-rcmp-surveillance-video-wellness-check-lawsuit-1.5623215
A surveillance video that is part of a civil lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court shows an RCMP officer in Kelowna dragging a female nursing student down a hallway and stepping on her head after a wellness check at her apartment.
The suit alleging physical and emotional abuse was filed by Mona Wang, a student at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in Kelowna, against RCMP Cpl. Lacy Browning on March 23.
The officer disputes the claim, saying that only necessary force was used to subdue the student when she became violent. In Browning's statement of defence, filed June 15, she alleges Wang had a box cutter in her hand and denies that she assaulted the student.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Browning has been placed on administrative duties and the RCMP has launched a code of conduct investigation as well as a criminal investigation, according to a police spokesperson.
In the notice of claim, Wang says she was experiencing mental distress on the evening of Jan. 20, 2020, and her boyfriend called the RCMP requesting a wellness check.
The lawsuit says Browning found Wang lying on her apartment's bathroom floor and did not provide medical assistance.
----- 4 -----
Above the Law: The Data Are In on Police, Killing, and Race
June 23, 2020
By Lyman Stone
Police killing is not the work of vigilant warriors defending society at great personal cost, and sometimes going too far. It is the day-in, day-out petty tyranny of a taxpayer-funded bureaucratic lobby group. The difference is that, unlike other public sector unions, police unions have military-grade equipment they can use to violently crush protests against their abuses, and they are legally immune from most consequences. They’re teachers’ unions, but with tanks and endless get-out-of-jail-free cards.
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65309/
Police officers kill about 1,700 Americans every year. In other words, police killings have made up about one out of every twelve violent deaths of Americans between 2010 and 2018. That’s including American military deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere during that window. Indeed, more Americans died at the hands of police officers during that period (about 14,400) than died while on active military duty (about 9,400).
Police violence in America is extraordinary in its intensity. It is disproportionate to the actual threats facing police officers, and it has risen significantly in recent years without apparent justification. Its effects are felt across all racial groups, with non-Hispanic whites making up half of all people killed by police officers, even as African Americans are killed at disproportionately high rates compared to any reasonable baseline.
----- 5 -----
Did a Barista Put a Tampon in a Cop's Frappuccino? An Investigation
"LAPD one looks like it was sitting in a coffee cup for a week on someone's dashboard."
by Jason Koebler and Tim Marchman
Jun 23 2020, 10:59am
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ep4vek/did-a-barista-put-a-tampon-in-a-cops-frappuccino-an-investigation
Update: This story has been updated with comment from Target, which said it has "reviewed video footage and have not found any suspicious behavior."
Last night, America was seized with horror when Bill Melugin, a reporter for the local Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, tweeted an image of a tampon being pulled from a cup with the tip of a distinctive green straw.
An off-duty LAPD officer, according to Melugin, found the tampon in a blended coffee drink he'd purchased at a Starbucks inside a Target in Diamond Bar, and later filed a report with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
"This disgusting assault on a police officer was carried out by someone with hatred in their heart and who lacks human decency," the LAPD's union told Melugin.
The story, though, raised questions, and not just because of the long history of cops claiming to have been assaulted by fast-food workers, only for those claims to turn out to be nonsense. According to Melugin's reporting, the officer could only have been identified by their police credit union debit card. As anyone who's been in a Starbucks since the coronavirus pandemic began knows, though, cashiers don't handle debit cards. As the story goes, then, the cashier would have had to closely scrutinize the officer's card as they ran it through the machine and alert a barista to their identity; the barista, making the drink in plain sight, would have then have had to acquire a tampon and put it into the drink after it had been through a blender.
----- 6 -----
Joshua Potash
twitter.com/JoshuaPotash
23 June 2020
https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1275527496230895617
How is this no longer getting national attention? Have we already gone numb?
This was the scene outside City Hall in Richmond, Virginia last night. Police are still rioting across the country.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Police attacking protesters at close range with gas, rubber bullets]
[QUOTED TWEET]
Not the Real Levar Stoney
twitter.com/NotLevar
23 June 2020
https://twitter.com/NotLevar/status/1275368795444588544
[THREAD]
Timeline of Richmond City Hall attack, 1:27-1:30 AM June 23, 2020 from peaceful to apocalyptic nightmare. Here they start coming at the peaceful protesters.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT PREVIOUS LINK]
